


Imperfection

by joyeusenoelle



Category: In Nomine
Genre: Gen, Leo - Freeform, Zhune - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-22
Updated: 2013-10-22
Packaged: 2017-12-30 03:00:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1013281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joyeusenoelle/pseuds/joyeusenoelle





	Imperfection

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fadeverb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fadeverb/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Perfection Of A Kind](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1013095) by [fadeverb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fadeverb/pseuds/fadeverb). 



Alecia sat in one of the backward-facing seats in the subway car she shouldn't have been on, and, as quietly as she could, wept. 

The demon - and she was sure, now, that the girl she'd seen was a demon - had turned a policeman on her, and despite that moment of worried distraction, Alecia was sure she'd seen the demon slip into the subway car. She'd fought her way on after, shoving humans aside whose only crime was that they'd left work a little early or didn't love their husbands as much as their husbands loved them, and managed to get onto the subway car just before the chime sounded and the doors closed. And only then, through the fingerprinted plexiglass, had she seen the wispy, nearly-invisible shape of the creature she was chasing - and it was _outside_ the subway car. 

The demon had _waved_ before the train pulled away.

The press of people had lessened as the car moved farther from the center of the city, and Alecia had managed to stifle her frustration and anger until a seat had opened up. But once she'd sat down, and taken off her glasses - who needed sunglasses in an underground train? - a child had looked at her and asked her what was wrong. A child who, she saw in his eyes, had just this week saved another, younger child from a schoolyard bully.

This _child_ , this _human child_ , had been able to do what Alecia had not. 

She'd managed to clap her hand over her mouth before the sob broke out, but the tears came and refused to stop coming. She at least had been saved from explaining when the child's mother looked down at the weeping woman and spirited her child away from the obviously-crazy person.

There was no one else in the subway car now to hear Alecia cry, but the sobs were long since gone. It was just tears and sniffles now. 

The train chimed, and the doors slid open. She heard the thump of boots, and then the creak of the seat beside her. She looked up and saw the tall, lean vessel of her partner. "Duhael," she said, raggedly. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" he asked. His voice was warm and soft, not at all the clipped tones she'd thought she should expect from an Elohite.

"I lost the demon. I thought I'd cornered her, but she slipped away."

"Sometimes they do. Demons are wily and sly, Alecia, and you should not blame yourself when you are not quite as wily and sly as they. Perhaps straightforwardness is a gift."

"How am I supposed to take myself seriously as a demon hunter if --"

Duhael cut her off. "You are not a demon hunter. A demon tracker, yes. A demon finder. A demon capturer. But not a hunter. A hunter sees her prey as _less than_ she is. To serve our Word, we must have compassion for the demons, not see them as our inferiors." He smiled, and even though she knew it was only because it was what he thought she needed to see, it did make her feel better. A little.

"I understand." Alecia bit her lip. "But Duhael, I couldn't even catch _one demon_. They trusted me to come down to Earth and do their work, and I failed my first job. My _first day_ and I completely blow it. What does that say about me?"

She felt Duhael's arm over her shoulder, and she leaned into his frame, wiping her nose on her sleeve. She knew it was terrible manners and terrible for the fabric, but right now she didn't care. The Elohite waited a moment before speaking to let her settle. "It says, Alecia, that you are exactly like every other angel who has ever come down from Heaven. I do not know a single one of us who has succeeded at everything he, she, or it has tried."

"But what am I supposed to do?"

Duhael squeezed her shoulders. "Get back up and figure out where the demon was going next. And then find a way to be there too. That is the job. We move, we stumble, we get up and move again. It does take some getting used to. That is why they assigned you to me."

Alecia nodded. The tears had finally stopped, but she didn't know what else to say. They sat in silence, watching the lights of the subway tunnel flash by in reverse, and then, finally, Alecia spoke up. "I didn't know a human vessel contained this much fluid by default."

"They are a damp lot, these humans," Duhael said, and it was a few stops before Alecia could stop laughing.


End file.
